Another great piece by you, brother Chris! Would like to know more about the solutions to these issues -- for instance, what are your thoughts about some form of people's socialism and the creation of a truly independent socialist party?
In that vein what are your thoughts about Bernie Sanders, people like John Bellamy Foster, the noted Marxist editor of Monthly Review, not to mention the many progressive national and community organizations? How do true progressives, revolutionaries and others on the left organize to, at the very least, prevent the outright victory of the fascist movement in the U.S.?
I've read several of your books, each one is very important and they have opened my eyes to things i knew little about. Your incredible experience as a journalist and now a teacher, really, including in prisons where so many poor and working people have been warehoused until they can be tossed aside and broken. Yet many survive and go on to do great things -- in many cases thanks to you! But what hope is there if we don’t get organized and form some sort of truly progressive political party? Organize not so much to run for political office but to actually bring people people in their neighborhoods, workplaces, communities and across the nation?
I disagree with the point regarding McCarthy stating the Dems want a perpetual state of Covid mandates. I think he is right in saying that because it's true. And I don't like McCarthy either. The Covid lockdowns and mandates were not based on science, and were politically weaponized to scare and control the public. Moreover, anyone who is a proponent of vaccine mandates and mask mandates is essentially siding with the drug industry, as well as the merger of state and corporate power. The Covid mandates caused incalculable harm, poverty, and the deaths of countless poor people around the world. Especially in the 3rd world. It was generally Starbucks sipping, professional class corporate Democrats who cheered for the lockdowns and mandates. Their elitism and entitlement - not to mention racist/classist intentions - are obvious. It's important to look at who one's company is on this issue; if it's corporations and government hacks like Fauci, not a good sign.
The Republicans who held out their votes for McCarthy engaged in Democracy, despite their consistency being questionable. Most or all of them are hacks - but they forced some important concessions, such as allowing 72 hours to read a bill before signing it. That's a bit better than the undemocratic Pelosi saying let's pass Obamacare so we can see what's in it. Talk about insanity,
anti-democracy, elitism and authoritarianism. The speaker has too much power and the squad should have done the same thing, to push back against, and at least kick Pelosi out. They, of course, are gutless hacks.
I don't profess to know what was real and what was lies, when did who know what etc, but those who think like you about the COVID mess seem to believe the 'authorities' actually knew what was going on, you can't be part of a vast conspiracy to dupe the public if you don't know what the real circumstances are. Regardless of the source of the virus, the virus was there and it was killing a lot of people. It could easily have been much worse than they thought at the time, it could easily have gotten much worse at any time, NO ONE knew. The next one might be worse than the plague, all the antimask antivac folks are going to get a real shock when they find out how bad it truly is and it will likely be too late for them to change their mind.
I am not an expert either - but long ago it was widely known how low the death and hospitalization rates were. The authorities continued the lockdowns and mask mandates. There were also data showing outcomes from areas that did not lockdown and it was not much different. Africa is a prime example. I believe it was the WHO Covid tzar who stated lockdowns are not meant to be longterm. Johns Hopkins researchers found almost zero benefit from Covid lockdowns, and reported the effects were devastating. They also knew there was a virtual zero % risk to kids - but lied and pushed vaccines on them, as well as lockdowns. These kids now have mental problems and have been stunted in their development. The 'experts' pushed disinformation.
Most importantly, you mentioned about the next pandemic possibly being a plague like situation. Generally the pro vaccine/lockdown/mandate people are the same people who, very interestingly, couldn't care less about Covid origin, and holding whoever caused the pandemic accountable. We know Fauci and NIH money was funding GOF research at the Wuhan lab - but people worship him and say nothing. Obama shut GOF research down due to the risk. Anyone who declares their hyper concern over Sars Cov 2 - but doesn't care how it happened(likely because of political reasons) - is faking their concern. It's posturing. Fauci, the scientists involved who likely caused this pandemic that killed millions, need to be investigated and face criminal charges. Killing millions of people should not allow the perpetrators to be walking around, while armed robbers are serving life in prison. This riskly GOF research continues right now. The crowd who attacks one who doesn't want to wear a mask(which has shown little benefit) did not CAUSE the pandemic. I always know anyone is faking their Covid concern when they don't want an investigation. Further, animal agriculture is usually linked with disease outbreaks, not to mention drug resistance, which is getting worse. I don't hear much concern about that. What I see is people lined up at In-And-Out Burger, while they ignorantly fume about someone not wearing a mask. Lastly, I find it interesting that the 'authorities' only recently began putting ads on the radio talking about risk factors, such as obesity, for Covid 19 poor outcomes. Why were they not plastering this all over the media 2 years ago? The ignorance, disinformation, posturing, political weaponization of Covid 19 sums up the lack of education and easily manipulation of the public.
The lack of expertise makes gleaning anything from the info available difficult to impossible. Do masks work? If they didn't, doctors wouldn't wear them in surgery. That's not really the right evidence but they certainly provide some benefit, particularly the real K95 or whatever that designation was. The main benefit was to keep you from spreading to others and not to protect yourself. The reduction in range of particles spread from sneezes and coughs is real enough.
About gain of function, when that came out I went to a lot of effort trying to understand, reading some of the docs that were said to prove they were doing GOF research, which did look like that's what they were doing, I then read the contracts and regs regarding what was and wasn't considered GOF, and what they were doing did NOT meet the criteria to be called GOF. The lack of expertise keeps me from being real certain but that was what it looked like to me.
I've seen a LOT of BS reports of serious complications from the vaccine, it's almost impossible to figure out what's real and what isn't, who to believe and who not to. One thing is glaringly obvious is that the death rates of unvaccinated is far higher than for the vaccinated. Drug resistance is a really HUGE problem, I've been reading about it for at least a couple of DECADES. I don't know what you're talking about wrt obesity, age, smoking, health condition especially respiratory problems etc being risk factors, that was quite widely discussed early on like April or even March of 2020, I know, I fit 2 or 3 of the high risk categories.
As to the source, it may never be known, I agree the reporting on it was pathetic. the politicization of the epidemic started with Trump, his handling of it should be a crime, he more than anyone else is responsible for a LOT of the deaths in this country. When he wanted to stop the early testing, it was because all the positive results made him look bad, he didn't give a fuck about how many people were getting sick, he just wanted to make the numbers go down. He should have been run out of DC after being tarred and feathered. That can't be justified in ANY rational, non-laughable way, it's simply a fact of who that POS truly is.
Surgeons wear masks to reduce droplets and prevent blood splatter from getting on their faces. They don't wear them to prevent a SARS type virus.
The politicization was equal on both sides. When Trump went to block flights in from China, the Dems called him racist. When Trump helped fund the socialistic/ fascistic Covid19 vaccines through operation Warp Speed, Biden and Harris expressed major skepticim. Biden worried they hadn't gone through proper testing, and Harris could not trust any vaccine coming from Trump. Other top Dems were concerned and skeptical. That begs the question: why would people who hate Trump get a Covid vaccine? When Trump does rallies he tells people to get vaccinated, which results in boos from his audience. Fauci, in early 2020, said not to wear masks.
I will say, regardless of vaccine efficacy, being in line with the Covid vaccine movement is a bit facistic. It was a rigging for corporate profits. Small businesses were shut down while Amazon and the bigs stayed open. Liquor stores and fast food joints stayed open while gyms were shut down. The one thing the country needed to reduce hospitalization was more people going to the damn gym, and not eating fast food.
Whether the research that was being funded in Wuhan was GOF will likely need a Congressional investigation. Given the coincidental fact the virus emerged there, it seems likely it was a lab leak. No Sars Cov 2 has been found in any animal they have tested there. Whether it was a lab leak, or the result of the morons and primitives who operate/use wet markets, the cause is out there. Whoever CAUSED it should face, at minimum, a 1 million year life in prison sentence. Trump, as much as a moron as he is, did not cause Cov19. Whoever CAUSED Covid19 is 100% responsible for all deaths. If a robber kills people in an armed robbery, you don't blame the victims because they failed to wear bullet proof vests. That's the equivalent of blaming Trump or unvaccinated people for Covid19 deaths.
If it is true the unvaccinated are more likely to die than vaccinated, so be it. The real reason most die is because they are unhealthy. If they study the Covid19 death rates of drug addicts, and look at vaccinated vs unvaccinated, I'm not going to be too interested. There needs to be an asterisk next to any death rate stats, considering the health disaster of the American population. No one wants to talk about Africa. They have an extremely low Covid vaccination rate, and have kicked the West's ass in Covid19 outcomes. Almost all Covid19 vaccine doses went to the top wealthiest nations, while the 3rd world got very little. Poor countries cannot afford them, which underscores this pandemic was never about people dying. It was about profits. Africans not being vaccinated didn't affect them much. It turns out their low obesity rates were more protective than the vaccines; age was also likely a factor. They emphasis should have been on America getting healthy. The first time I heard an ad about Covid risk factors was about 3 weeks ago. There was nothing but fear-hyping, and implying that everyone is at risk. I never heard anything from Trump, Biden, Fauci, governors, Congress or anyone else telling people to STOP stuffing their pie holes with shit.
A lab leak would almost certainly be an accident, you want to throw someone in prison for life for an accident? The main motivation for Trump's behavior is virtually always for some benefit or profit for him, you could see it in the way they ran the COVID response where states he didn't like due to their pols got screwed, there was a TON of grift going on, as usual in anything Trump did. Trump is the cause of pretty much ALL of the politicization, his early handling was so appalling, so depraved that it freaked everyone out, their actions may have been overblown or too simplistic but it was mostly due to having to overcome the utter nonsense spread by Trump who did pretty much everything he could to maximize the number of people who got sick and died. No, I'm, not saying that was his intention, just the consequences of his actions. I'll repeat what I said before, a lot of what you're saying and what many many others say assumes the health industry/officials/etc knew what was going on, what was going to happen, etc and they simply didn't, they had to go with what they knew and what their best models and best science could tell them. That isn't to say there wasn't a ton of unconscionable crap going on, the pledge to freely supply vaccines to 4rd world countries never happened and that was a choice that could come make things worse for the whole world. At some point, a real deadly epidemic will hit and if we act the same, it's going to go very very wrong, most especially if the president of the US acts at all like Trump did, denying reality is a piss-poor strategy.
I have learned a lot from CH over the years from reading his books and listening to his conclusions on YouTube etcetera. He’s a Christian and I suppose that gives him comfort because most of the time his analysis are depressing. I think that’s probably one of the reasons he’s not nearly as popular as a brilliant journalist such as he is isn’t more popular. I hope maybe people will wake up to the insanity but it’s not looking good.
The anti-immigration efforts by both parties is clear enough, what I wonder is how much of it is driven by the looming global disruptions due to climate change and the nightmare refugee crises they will bring. I can see the majority of the country choosing to support massive walls across all borders with something like shoot to kill policies for those trying to come in. what we're seeing now is just laying the groundwork for much harsher means in the years to come.
I am always amazed at how Chris's analyses distills and delineates the reality of our collective endeavor in such stark and completely accurate terms. His commentary resonates with and clarifies why most Americans have a murky sense that things are out of control, that they have no control. Rosa Luxemburg said, "The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening" which is exactly what Chris does. Chris, I believe, has taken the baton from Chomsky as America's most invaluable public intellectual. Thanks so much Chris for still fighting the good fight. Your indefatigability is astonishing.
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
What will be more than a little disheartening to watch is how, regardless of the massive dysfunction at the national level, the weapons and money for more weapons for Ukraine, will continue to flow. At home it may be the theatre of the absurd, but across the globe its the four horsemen of apocalypse and the danse macarbre..........an American citizenry cared for and educated well by governments that actually do what they are elected for....serve the people....wouldn't stand for the imperial destruction American forces visit upon the world.
War has nothing to do with freedom, democracy or values....a quick listen to a Canadian indigenous freedom fighter......Buffy St Marie, will tell you what war is: find 'THE WAR RACKET' on Utube and learn the lyrics. She's nailed the Theatre of Endless Destruction....and its an American Racket.
Another great piece by you, brother Chris! Would like to know more about the solutions to these issues -- for instance, what are your thoughts about some form of people's socialism and the creation of a truly independent socialist party?
In that vein what are your thoughts about Bernie Sanders, people like John Bellamy Foster, the noted Marxist editor of Monthly Review, not to mention the many progressive national and community organizations? How do true progressives, revolutionaries and others on the left organize to, at the very least, prevent the outright victory of the fascist movement in the U.S.?
I've read several of your books, each one is very important and they have opened my eyes to things i knew little about. Your incredible experience as a journalist and now a teacher, really, including in prisons where so many poor and working people have been warehoused until they can be tossed aside and broken. Yet many survive and go on to do great things -- in many cases thanks to you! But what hope is there if we don’t get organized and form some sort of truly progressive political party? Organize not so much to run for political office but to actually bring people people in their neighborhoods, workplaces, communities and across the nation?
Look forward to your response!
With respect and in solidarity,
J.P. Bone TheseGreenTimes.com
i accidentally clicked "like" to my own damn response!
I disagree with the point regarding McCarthy stating the Dems want a perpetual state of Covid mandates. I think he is right in saying that because it's true. And I don't like McCarthy either. The Covid lockdowns and mandates were not based on science, and were politically weaponized to scare and control the public. Moreover, anyone who is a proponent of vaccine mandates and mask mandates is essentially siding with the drug industry, as well as the merger of state and corporate power. The Covid mandates caused incalculable harm, poverty, and the deaths of countless poor people around the world. Especially in the 3rd world. It was generally Starbucks sipping, professional class corporate Democrats who cheered for the lockdowns and mandates. Their elitism and entitlement - not to mention racist/classist intentions - are obvious. It's important to look at who one's company is on this issue; if it's corporations and government hacks like Fauci, not a good sign.
The Republicans who held out their votes for McCarthy engaged in Democracy, despite their consistency being questionable. Most or all of them are hacks - but they forced some important concessions, such as allowing 72 hours to read a bill before signing it. That's a bit better than the undemocratic Pelosi saying let's pass Obamacare so we can see what's in it. Talk about insanity,
anti-democracy, elitism and authoritarianism. The speaker has too much power and the squad should have done the same thing, to push back against, and at least kick Pelosi out. They, of course, are gutless hacks.
I don't profess to know what was real and what was lies, when did who know what etc, but those who think like you about the COVID mess seem to believe the 'authorities' actually knew what was going on, you can't be part of a vast conspiracy to dupe the public if you don't know what the real circumstances are. Regardless of the source of the virus, the virus was there and it was killing a lot of people. It could easily have been much worse than they thought at the time, it could easily have gotten much worse at any time, NO ONE knew. The next one might be worse than the plague, all the antimask antivac folks are going to get a real shock when they find out how bad it truly is and it will likely be too late for them to change their mind.
I am not an expert either - but long ago it was widely known how low the death and hospitalization rates were. The authorities continued the lockdowns and mask mandates. There were also data showing outcomes from areas that did not lockdown and it was not much different. Africa is a prime example. I believe it was the WHO Covid tzar who stated lockdowns are not meant to be longterm. Johns Hopkins researchers found almost zero benefit from Covid lockdowns, and reported the effects were devastating. They also knew there was a virtual zero % risk to kids - but lied and pushed vaccines on them, as well as lockdowns. These kids now have mental problems and have been stunted in their development. The 'experts' pushed disinformation.
Most importantly, you mentioned about the next pandemic possibly being a plague like situation. Generally the pro vaccine/lockdown/mandate people are the same people who, very interestingly, couldn't care less about Covid origin, and holding whoever caused the pandemic accountable. We know Fauci and NIH money was funding GOF research at the Wuhan lab - but people worship him and say nothing. Obama shut GOF research down due to the risk. Anyone who declares their hyper concern over Sars Cov 2 - but doesn't care how it happened(likely because of political reasons) - is faking their concern. It's posturing. Fauci, the scientists involved who likely caused this pandemic that killed millions, need to be investigated and face criminal charges. Killing millions of people should not allow the perpetrators to be walking around, while armed robbers are serving life in prison. This riskly GOF research continues right now. The crowd who attacks one who doesn't want to wear a mask(which has shown little benefit) did not CAUSE the pandemic. I always know anyone is faking their Covid concern when they don't want an investigation. Further, animal agriculture is usually linked with disease outbreaks, not to mention drug resistance, which is getting worse. I don't hear much concern about that. What I see is people lined up at In-And-Out Burger, while they ignorantly fume about someone not wearing a mask. Lastly, I find it interesting that the 'authorities' only recently began putting ads on the radio talking about risk factors, such as obesity, for Covid 19 poor outcomes. Why were they not plastering this all over the media 2 years ago? The ignorance, disinformation, posturing, political weaponization of Covid 19 sums up the lack of education and easily manipulation of the public.
The lack of expertise makes gleaning anything from the info available difficult to impossible. Do masks work? If they didn't, doctors wouldn't wear them in surgery. That's not really the right evidence but they certainly provide some benefit, particularly the real K95 or whatever that designation was. The main benefit was to keep you from spreading to others and not to protect yourself. The reduction in range of particles spread from sneezes and coughs is real enough.
About gain of function, when that came out I went to a lot of effort trying to understand, reading some of the docs that were said to prove they were doing GOF research, which did look like that's what they were doing, I then read the contracts and regs regarding what was and wasn't considered GOF, and what they were doing did NOT meet the criteria to be called GOF. The lack of expertise keeps me from being real certain but that was what it looked like to me.
I've seen a LOT of BS reports of serious complications from the vaccine, it's almost impossible to figure out what's real and what isn't, who to believe and who not to. One thing is glaringly obvious is that the death rates of unvaccinated is far higher than for the vaccinated. Drug resistance is a really HUGE problem, I've been reading about it for at least a couple of DECADES. I don't know what you're talking about wrt obesity, age, smoking, health condition especially respiratory problems etc being risk factors, that was quite widely discussed early on like April or even March of 2020, I know, I fit 2 or 3 of the high risk categories.
As to the source, it may never be known, I agree the reporting on it was pathetic. the politicization of the epidemic started with Trump, his handling of it should be a crime, he more than anyone else is responsible for a LOT of the deaths in this country. When he wanted to stop the early testing, it was because all the positive results made him look bad, he didn't give a fuck about how many people were getting sick, he just wanted to make the numbers go down. He should have been run out of DC after being tarred and feathered. That can't be justified in ANY rational, non-laughable way, it's simply a fact of who that POS truly is.
Surgeons wear masks to reduce droplets and prevent blood splatter from getting on their faces. They don't wear them to prevent a SARS type virus.
The politicization was equal on both sides. When Trump went to block flights in from China, the Dems called him racist. When Trump helped fund the socialistic/ fascistic Covid19 vaccines through operation Warp Speed, Biden and Harris expressed major skepticim. Biden worried they hadn't gone through proper testing, and Harris could not trust any vaccine coming from Trump. Other top Dems were concerned and skeptical. That begs the question: why would people who hate Trump get a Covid vaccine? When Trump does rallies he tells people to get vaccinated, which results in boos from his audience. Fauci, in early 2020, said not to wear masks.
I will say, regardless of vaccine efficacy, being in line with the Covid vaccine movement is a bit facistic. It was a rigging for corporate profits. Small businesses were shut down while Amazon and the bigs stayed open. Liquor stores and fast food joints stayed open while gyms were shut down. The one thing the country needed to reduce hospitalization was more people going to the damn gym, and not eating fast food.
Whether the research that was being funded in Wuhan was GOF will likely need a Congressional investigation. Given the coincidental fact the virus emerged there, it seems likely it was a lab leak. No Sars Cov 2 has been found in any animal they have tested there. Whether it was a lab leak, or the result of the morons and primitives who operate/use wet markets, the cause is out there. Whoever CAUSED it should face, at minimum, a 1 million year life in prison sentence. Trump, as much as a moron as he is, did not cause Cov19. Whoever CAUSED Covid19 is 100% responsible for all deaths. If a robber kills people in an armed robbery, you don't blame the victims because they failed to wear bullet proof vests. That's the equivalent of blaming Trump or unvaccinated people for Covid19 deaths.
If it is true the unvaccinated are more likely to die than vaccinated, so be it. The real reason most die is because they are unhealthy. If they study the Covid19 death rates of drug addicts, and look at vaccinated vs unvaccinated, I'm not going to be too interested. There needs to be an asterisk next to any death rate stats, considering the health disaster of the American population. No one wants to talk about Africa. They have an extremely low Covid vaccination rate, and have kicked the West's ass in Covid19 outcomes. Almost all Covid19 vaccine doses went to the top wealthiest nations, while the 3rd world got very little. Poor countries cannot afford them, which underscores this pandemic was never about people dying. It was about profits. Africans not being vaccinated didn't affect them much. It turns out their low obesity rates were more protective than the vaccines; age was also likely a factor. They emphasis should have been on America getting healthy. The first time I heard an ad about Covid risk factors was about 3 weeks ago. There was nothing but fear-hyping, and implying that everyone is at risk. I never heard anything from Trump, Biden, Fauci, governors, Congress or anyone else telling people to STOP stuffing their pie holes with shit.
A lab leak would almost certainly be an accident, you want to throw someone in prison for life for an accident? The main motivation for Trump's behavior is virtually always for some benefit or profit for him, you could see it in the way they ran the COVID response where states he didn't like due to their pols got screwed, there was a TON of grift going on, as usual in anything Trump did. Trump is the cause of pretty much ALL of the politicization, his early handling was so appalling, so depraved that it freaked everyone out, their actions may have been overblown or too simplistic but it was mostly due to having to overcome the utter nonsense spread by Trump who did pretty much everything he could to maximize the number of people who got sick and died. No, I'm, not saying that was his intention, just the consequences of his actions. I'll repeat what I said before, a lot of what you're saying and what many many others say assumes the health industry/officials/etc knew what was going on, what was going to happen, etc and they simply didn't, they had to go with what they knew and what their best models and best science could tell them. That isn't to say there wasn't a ton of unconscionable crap going on, the pledge to freely supply vaccines to 4rd world countries never happened and that was a choice that could come make things worse for the whole world. At some point, a real deadly epidemic will hit and if we act the same, it's going to go very very wrong, most especially if the president of the US acts at all like Trump did, denying reality is a piss-poor strategy.
I have learned a lot from CH over the years from reading his books and listening to his conclusions on YouTube etcetera. He’s a Christian and I suppose that gives him comfort because most of the time his analysis are depressing. I think that’s probably one of the reasons he’s not nearly as popular as a brilliant journalist such as he is isn’t more popular. I hope maybe people will wake up to the insanity but it’s not looking good.
The anti-immigration efforts by both parties is clear enough, what I wonder is how much of it is driven by the looming global disruptions due to climate change and the nightmare refugee crises they will bring. I can see the majority of the country choosing to support massive walls across all borders with something like shoot to kill policies for those trying to come in. what we're seeing now is just laying the groundwork for much harsher means in the years to come.
I am always amazed at how Chris's analyses distills and delineates the reality of our collective endeavor in such stark and completely accurate terms. His commentary resonates with and clarifies why most Americans have a murky sense that things are out of control, that they have no control. Rosa Luxemburg said, "The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what is happening" which is exactly what Chris does. Chris, I believe, has taken the baton from Chomsky as America's most invaluable public intellectual. Thanks so much Chris for still fighting the good fight. Your indefatigability is astonishing.
Carl Sagan put it well:
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back."
What will be more than a little disheartening to watch is how, regardless of the massive dysfunction at the national level, the weapons and money for more weapons for Ukraine, will continue to flow. At home it may be the theatre of the absurd, but across the globe its the four horsemen of apocalypse and the danse macarbre..........an American citizenry cared for and educated well by governments that actually do what they are elected for....serve the people....wouldn't stand for the imperial destruction American forces visit upon the world.
War has nothing to do with freedom, democracy or values....a quick listen to a Canadian indigenous freedom fighter......Buffy St Marie, will tell you what war is: find 'THE WAR RACKET' on Utube and learn the lyrics. She's nailed the Theatre of Endless Destruction....and its an American Racket.
When will we hear something of substance from you two? Lol. Thank you. I’m writing Snowden to ask if he has a spare room now.